Morgan Swihart - Broken Ceilings (2024) Hi-Res

Singer-songwriter Morgan Swihart unveils her latest long player, Broken Ceilings, revealing elements of folk, ambient, alt-rock, and electronic tangs.

Encompassing eight tracks, highlights on Broken Ceilings include the title track, rolling out on a slow, mid-tempo rhythm featuring finessed drumming from Gerasia, whose talent gives the song a syncopated-lite punch. Morgan’s strong, ethereal vocals imbue the lyrics with wistful dreamy timbres that comprise an edge.

A low-slung, blues rock number, “Comfort” allows Morgan to parade her vocal range, ebbing and rising on first lighter colors and then dropping to darker tones. A wailing guitar infuses the melody with melancholic accents.

A personal favorite because of its alt-rock flavors, reminiscent of Liz Phair, “Sharp Objects” projects a brooding imminence, emphasized by the cutting frames of Morgan’s vocals.

Perhaps the best song on the album, “Ghost” flows like a mist through a cemetery, at once shimmering, spectral, and dreamy. There’s a hushed translucence to Morgan’s voice, drifting and gliding on soft, sumptuous textures.

“The Way It Panned Out” ties the album off with more muscle – darker guitars and a heavier rhythm, accompanied by Morgan’s passionate vocals. There’s a grand, blistering, nasty guitar solo in this track.

Shaded with melancholic musings and dripping with elusive urgency, Broken Ceilings is a significant work of art. Good stuff.